Benevolent Sexism exists. I am not here to argue that is does not. I will
point out that there is a lot of behavior that overlaps with Benevolent
Sexist behaviors. For example I was in the space and snell was trying to
get her bike off of the rack. From my angle I could see that the tire was
still stuck on the hook so I tried to lift the tire off of the hook. Snell
didn't like this and told me to stop. I did. The only reason I could see
for her not wanting my help was because I was a man, she was a woman, and
heavy lifting was involved. The problem is that I was not helping her out
of a sense that "she's just a frail woman" I was helping her because I saw
what was causing her problems. (And she appeared to be at an angle that
obscured the problem) Had she been a man I would have still helped remove
the bike from the rack. So while benevolent sexism exists lets not go
overboard in reacting to perceived benevolent sexism. There a lots and
lots of prosocial behaviors that overlap with benevolent sexism and without
knowing the other persons thoughts and motivation for initiating an act you
cannot tell one from the other. In other words give people the benefit of
the doubt. If you see some behavior that you think is benevolently sexist
rather than scowl at the person for it, check yourself. Is there a
possibility that this person's actions were not in fact motivated by my
sex? Is there a possibility that by being so hypervigilant for sexism that
I am finding false positives?
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